ER: After The Finale
by chinethegreat
Summary: A compilation of the lives of the doctors at County General Hospital. It follows the story of old characters including new medical students and residents after the series finale.
1. Part 1: The First 24 Hours

E.R.

Part 1: The First 24 Hours

Chapter 1: Eric Whitman "My First Day"

It was my first day at County General Hospital as a third year medical student. I was to begin my clinical studies as a part of my graduate school. I was extremely excited because I have heard a lot of good things about County and couldn't believe that I got accepted into the was another rainy September morning in Chicago, Illinois, but not even the rain could stop me. I rushed into my new home, the emergency room at Cook County General Hospital and took in everything. It was busy, as always, with many patients raging from a simple cold to someone sawing off their own finger with a power tool. I loved the emergency room because it's always fast paced and there is never a dry moment. My dream was to one day becoming the chief of emergency medicine, just like that loud red headed man standing by the front desk.

"Ok med students, gather around please!" That was Archie Morris, he was the chief of emergency medicine. Looking at him you wouldn't think of him as a man of authority, but he has the most experience as a doctor here in the E.R. and has really good bed side manner. "I know it is a new year for a lot of you here, I wish I could give you the usual tour and breakdown of the E.R. but I just simply don't have the time." I looked around at my fellow third years and none of them really seemed like competition accept for one girl. "Alright so let's partner you guys up! Harry you are with Lily, Emily with me, Rachel with Tony, and Eric with Sam." Harry, the EMT turned medical student looked confused as to who he was supposed to be with.

"Umm. Dr. Morris, sorry but it doesn't seem like my partner is here." Archie looks around for his first year resident and doesn't see her.

"Sam, where is Lily?" The worried blonde in her mid thirties looked quizzically at Dr. Morris.

"I'm not sure Archie, I'll try calling her."

"Yes well get on it fast! While you wait for Dr. Carter to get here you can work with Emily and I." The one girl who I thought was competition looked extremely annoyed. She was very beautiful with Shirley Temple dark black hair, striking green eyes, and a freckled face. She was Emily Jacobs, a graduate from Harvard University, top of her class. Her parents were giants in the medical world and she didn't want anything to get in her way to be at that level. Harry walked over to Dr. Morris and Emily, as Sam was trying to get a hold of Lily. Lily Carter was John Carter's cousin, he was a very well known and established doctor here at County General. John Carter was definitely someone who I looked up to in the medical field, but Lily was quite the opposite. It was hard to believe those two are related because Lily is known to sleep around with not such great guys, and has had a problem related to drugs and alcohol. We all split up into our separate groups and I walked over to Sam who was at the front desk still trying to call Lily.

"Dammit!" She was really frustrated. "I can't believe she would do this."

"Can't get a hold of her?" She stared up at me wondering why I was curious of Lily.

"No. I can't believe she would do this again, she has been doing so well for the past couple of months." Sam realized she was getting into much deeper stuff than she should be with a third year medical student like me. "Why am I talking to you about this, you have no idea who Lily is. Here take this case while I try to find out where she is." She hands me a folder, a simple cold, I could do this. She walked over to Rachel to see if she could figure out where Lily was, considering they were best friends.

"Frankie Palouzzi?" I was thinking it would be an old washed up pot-bellied Italian gangster, when it was a small, shy seven year old boy. He had curly black hair, an innocent face, blue eyes, and was wearing a spider-man outfit. The mother was something to watch out for; she had big curly hair, a caked up face, and wore an outfit you would find in an old disco music video. She looked like Amy Winehouse wearing a giant fur coat and high white washed boots, she smelled a lot like cigarettes.

"Yes, this is my son Frankie. He seems to have a cold." She had a very thick Chicago Italian accent.

"We will find out when I check him up. Please follow me." She was very annoyed with my cockiness, which I of course thought was confidence. While I walked Frankie and his mother to the exam room, Sam was giving Rachel a death glare.

"Rachel where is Lily?" She shrugged her shoulders, while stitching up a patient. "Rachel I know you were with Lily last night, you two went to that concert."

"Yes we went to the concert together, but we left in different cars."

"What do you mean?"

"I went home with the drummer, she went home with the singer/guitarist, I suppose."

"You suppose?"

"Look Lily was into the lead singer from the band that we saw. They were totally having eye sex when he was performing. We saw them by the bar after the show and started talking to them, I left with the drummer. The last thing I remember was Lily talking to the singer by the bar, that was the last time I saw her last night."

"Wait who did you guys see last night?"

"Black Roses." As much as she hated it Rachel wasn't lying. There had been many rumors that Lily had been dating off and on with the lead singer from the alternative band Black Roses. Back at the exam room I checked Frankie's blood pressure which was pretty normal for the kids age, temperature was at 97, and his ears seemed perfectly fine.

"Well little Frankie you seem to be in perfect condition." His mother seemed really annoyed.

"What do you mean? So I had to pull him out of school for nothing?" This made me wonder, it was the first day of school in most of the school districts. He was probably scared to go. She started yelling in Italian.

"Hey excuse me Mrs. Palouzzi can I talk to your son alone?" She rolled her eyes and left the room. "So Frankie, is it the first day of school for you?" He hesitantly nodded, looking down at the floor. "I know sometimes the first day of school can be scary, in fact I'm starting my first day of clinical school." He looked up. "Do you know what that means?" He shook his head, he reminded me of myself when I was that age. "It means that it's my first day of my third year in medical school… Do you know what that means?"

"You are becoming a doctor?" Sam walks into the exam room.

"Yes, and even though it seems like I know what I'm doing the truth is I am scared just like you."

"You are?"

"Yes. Do you want to know what my first patient was?" He nodded. "A guy who accidently cut off his finger with a steak knife. I have never stitched a live person before and I was so scared of the blood I almost fainted."

"Really?"

"Yup. So it's ok to be scared for your first day of school, everybody gets scared. But Frankie you have to go to school ok." He nodded. "You like Spiderman?" He nodded. "Here's a Spiderman band-aid, it'll give you powers like Spiderman so you won't be scared." I put the band aid on his hand. "Try it." He put out his hands like Spidey and I pretended like I got hurt right away. "Oh ow." I fell to the floor. "But I thought Spiderman saved people, help me up!" He lifted me up, so I hi-fived him. "See there is nothing to be scared of Frankie!" Sam smiled, Frankie's mother walked in.

"Is he ok to go now? He needs to get back in school."

"Yes he is fine, he just needs to change." She walked back outside frustrated. I washed my hands as Frankie began to take off his robes.

"Wow, you're really good with kids. Have you ever thought about going into pediatrics?" I smiled, I never really thought about pediatrics in my life.

"No, I've always been interested in emergency medicine." Frankie finished putting his clothes on. "Alright Frankie, remember what I told you!" He hugged me and ran over to his mother.

"Alright well it's pretty slow right now. They need help in sutures, do you think you could stitch up a couple of people while I try to figure out where Lily is?" I nodded and headed to sutures, I noticed something on Frankie's back as his shirt was lifted up for a second. I ran over to him to see what it was, I was concerned.

"Excuse me Frankie, do you mind if I look at your back?"

"What now, I thought you said he was fine."

"I know but I saw something and I just want to check it out." I lifted his shirt up and there were cigarette stains and bruises all over his back. "What happened here?" She looked at what I saw and shrugged her shoulders. "Tell me what happened."

"I don't know I've never seen those before. The kid likes to play on the monkey bars maybe he fell off them one time."

"How would that explain the cigarette burns?"

"Are you accusing me of hurting my child?"

"You said it."

"Well I would never do that, what kind of mother do you think I am?"

"I don't know I'll have to ask Frankie." I bent back down to Frankie and put my arms around him. "Frankie did you get those bruises from falling off the monkey bars?" He looked up at his mother, than back at me and nodded his head. "Ok, I just wanted to be sure."

"What kind of hospital is this? Accusing people of hurting their children?" She continued yelling in Italian and left the hospital. A part of me wanted to keep Frankie here, but it wasn't in my power to accuse his mother of beating him. So I went to sutures to stitch people up, I did that for about an hour as there wasn't much going on today. I decided I should probably go to lunch now considering I don't know when I would be able to eat, it might get busy later on. The cafeteria food was what you would expect from a hospital; a dry array of sandwiches, meats, mashed potatoes, and frozen vegetables. I ended up getting a ham and cheese sandwich; I'd figure you can't go wrong with that considering it was so simple, but next time I am bringing my own food.

I finished lunch and went to see what Sam was up to. She was talking to a beautiful girl; she had golden tan skin, dark chocolate brown eyes, and long straight golden brown hair. Sam looked upset, so I guessed she was Lily. I walked up to them as they were in a heated discussion, Lily would be very pretty but she looked like a washed up rock star. She had bags under her eyes and the whites were red, she looked like she was about to pass out. She did have a history of drug and alcohol abuse but everybody kept saying that she was doing much better in the past couple of months. They both stared at me, I forgot I was staring.

"What?" Lily asked, her voice was hoarse.

"Sorry." I didn't know what else to say, for some reason I was in a trance with this girl.

"Ugh sorry I forgot about you. Lily this is Eric Whitman, a third year." She seemed to not care at all. "Did you finish everyone in sutures, already?" I nodded my head. "Wow, your fast." Sam seemed to be looking for somebody, I couldn't take my eyes off of Lily. "Umm Lily, Archie gave you a third year but I have no idea where they are…" She saw Tony and Rachel at the corner of her eye. "Hey Tony do you know where Archie is?"

"Um yeah he's in trauma room one, headshot wound. But we're going to need help here, motorcycle accident is coming in. Two severe injuries, one minor."

"Ok! You ready for some action, Eric?" I nodded my head, we followed Tony. A biker in his mid thirties came in with major leg injuries, it didn't look like his left leg was going to make it. Tony and Rachel took that case to trauma two; the second was a woman with a deep head wound. Sam, Lily, and I took that one to trauma room one, the third injury was a minor foot injury, she was run over by the motorcycle as it came swirling by. "Lily you go help with the foot injury." Lily seemed annoyed.

"What, why?"

"Because you are hung over and I don't think you can take care of an injury like this."

"I am not hung over, I am perfectly fine. Have the third year take care of the foot injury." She looked as if she was getting woozy and dizzy, she couldn't stand still in one place. "I can do this!" Lily walked over to the patient but before you know it she was now on the ground, passed out with her nose bleeding.

"Dammit! Eric can you take her to exam room 2, do a blood culture test and give her an IV drip." I nodded, Malik and I lifted her up to the exam room.

Chapter 2: Lily Carter "The Headache"

I woke up in a dingy studio apartment in downtown Chicago, it was a rainy morning. I had a pounding headache, probably from the five beers and scotch that I had last night. I looked over to see the handsome rock star that I had slept with who was snoring like the Australian baby that he was. I walked slowly to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, everything around me was moving and it was hard to see where I was going. I felt like I needed to throw up, I couldn't tell if it was because I was hung over or there was something else. I had been feeling like this for the past couple of weeks, but it would only be in the morning and I wasn't intoxicated. I finished making the coffee and sat back down on the bed, everything was too much for me and there was no way I could go to work.

"Hey babe. When did you wake up?" My off and on rock star boyfriend, Scott asked. We were off and on because he was always traveling on tour, but whenever he came into Chicago we always did this. Everybody told me he was bad news but I didn't listen to him, I think it was his Australian accent that got to me every time.

"Just now a few minutes ago, god my head is killing me." I grabbed my head as it was pounding. Scott kissed me on the neck and got up from bed to get some coffee, I looked at the clock. "Damn, I'm late for work."

"Just call in sick."

"I can't we have med students coming in today." He came back to sit by me and kissed me on the lips.

"Well you know what always gets me through the day." He took out a small zip lock bag filled with coke. I stared at it thinking I shouldn't do it, only because I have been sober for a year. But I had the worst headache and needed to get to work, this was the only option. He spread some out on the nightstand nearby and snorted some into his nostrils, I put my hair back and did the same.

I had finally got to work, I was extremely hyper and perky right now. It looked pretty dead at the hospital, Archie was working on a headshot wound with a third year. Even though I seemed up to taking care of people, I still felt sick inside, I even looked like I had done drugs. I saw Sam at the corner of my eye and tried to get away from her, I knew she would be mad at what I had done last night and this morning.

"Lily, where have you been?"

"I was running late, I'm sorry."

"Are you high?" She asked noticing my red eyes.

"No?" She didn't believe me and started giving me a lecture. Suddenly a handsome bright-eyed third year came to us, I was annoyed that he was just standing there. Sam introduced me to him as Eric Whitman, he kept staring at me and I didn't know what to say to him. Tony asked us to help with an incoming motorcycle accident. I followed Sam and Eric to a woman in her mid thirties on a stretcher, she had a huge gash in the back of her head and was losing a lot of blood. Looking at all of the blood made me nauseas, even though I was a first year resident I still got queasy looking at the blood. I could barely stand up straight and everything around me moved.

"Lily are you alright?" Sam asked me.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Why don't you take care of the foot injury?"

"What, no. I can do this," Suddenly everything around me turned black and I fell to the floor. The next thing I know I was waking up in exam room 2 with an IV drip and Sam and Eric staring at me, worried about my health. They were whispering something and I was getting annoyed at the fact that they weren't talking to me. "What?" I yelled, they finally looked at me. Sam looked at me with her worry face and Eric just stared at me. "What is going on? Tell me, I can handle it."

"Have you felt nauseas over the past couple of weeks?" Why was she asking me this, and why didn't she get to the point?

"Yeah, just in the mornings. I never throw up though."

"When was the last time you had your period?" The only reason why she would be asking me these questions is if she thought I was pregnant, which was impossible.

"Why are you asking me this?"

"I'm asking as a doctor, not as a friend. Just following protocol, please answer the question."

"Since when is asking questions about pregnancy symptoms part of a drug and alcohol case."

"When was the last time you had your period?" She asked again.

"I don't know, I haven't had my period this month. What is going on?"

"Eric found traces of another strand of DNA when he took your blood culture. Is it possible that you might be pregnant?" There was no way in hell that I could be pregnant, so I shook my head. "Eric, can you bring in an ultra sound kit please?" Eric left the room. "I'm asking this again as a friend, is there a possibility that you might be pregnant?"

"I don't know Sam, maybe." We just sat there waiting for Eric to bring the ultra sound. I kept thinking that I couldn't possibly be pregnant, hoping that it would come true. There was no way I could be pregnant, not after just starting my first year of residency. Plus, I had no idea if Scott would give up his gig of a rock star life to take care of a child. Eric came walking in with the ultra sound and put the cold gel on my uterus. He moved the transducer probe around my lower belly.

"So this is your embriotic sac."

"I know what it is, just tell me if I'm pregnant or not!"

"Lily, he is a third year medical student just trying to follow procedure. Please continue Eric." He moved the cold probe around and slowly I saw the body of a small child.

"There are the feet, hands, and that little flutter is the heartbeat. Congratulations Dr. Carter you are pregnant, I would say about a couple of weeks." I was frustrated, there was just no way. I grabbed something on the table next to me and threw it out of anger.

"Thank you Eric, um could you leave the room. Work in sutures or something?" He nodded his head and left the room. Sam tried to calm me down, but at this point nothing could calm me. The only thing I could think of was calling Scott.

Chapter 3: Eric "The Rumors"

I couldn't believe that I just told Dr. Carter that she was pregnant. It was still my first day at County and I had already accused someone of beating their child and telling a young 25 year old Doctor that she was pregnant, when it was clear she didn't want that. When I got out of the exam room everybody looked at me, wondering why Sam had asked for an ultra sound when it was clear that Lily was extremely hung over and high. I looked over Lily's file, signed it, and put it on the rack. I needed to get something else on my mind so that I wasn't thinking about her, so I grabbed another file.

"Sarah Coleman?" A beautiful college student got up and walked slowly over to me. "So what seems to be the problem?"

"I have a rash." I nodded.

"Ok, where?" She looked down towards her vagina. "Oh, ok I'll get you to an exam room right away. Follow me." The patient told me she had a burning sensation when she peed, and only saw the rash a few days ago. She told me she had been sexually active, but she didn't think it could be an STD because the guy she was with took a test and it came out negative. "Well it might just be a simple case of poison ivy. But I'll get a gynecologist right away." I was getting tired, I had little sleep last night because I was super nervous for today. I went up to Jerry almost about to pass out.

"Jeez Doctor, you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine just tired." I rubbed my eyes, to wake me up. "Who is the admitting gynecologist? I have a woman in exam room one who has a rash, but it might be poison ivy. I just want to make sure it's not an STD."

"That would be Dr. Terry. I'll call her for you, you should get some sleep though."

"Are there any rooms available?"

"Yeah, exam room three."

"Ok I'll be in there. If anyone needs me, just wake me up." I walked into exam room three completely ignoring people, I really just needed an hour. I went to bed, suddenly I was woken up.

"Dr. Whitman, a trauma is coming in. Sam needs your help, she said you took care of the child earlier today."

"What's the name?"

"Frankie." I got up frightened, shocked at the name.

"Wait, Helen." She opened the door again. "How long was I asleep for?"

"About two hours." What was two hours seemed like ten minutes. I pulled myself together and got up from bed. I rushed over to the trauma room to see Sam doing compressions on a badly battered boy. He was wearing a Spiderman outfit, it was definitely Frankie, I saw his mother pacing by the chairs nearby.

"What happened?"

"He came in with his face like this." It was all bruised up, his eyes swollen, and mouth bleeding, missing a couple of teeth. "He's unconscious and losing a lot of blood."

"What do you think happened?" She looked at me and turned to the mother, I went outside the room extremely angry. "Mrs. Palouzzi! What the hell happened?"

"I don't know the school called me and I saw him like this." I didn't believe her for one second.

"Is that the truth?" She didn't answer and immediately I knew what happened, I went back into the emergency room. "It was her, I know it."

"What makes you think that?"

"Before he left when everything was ok I saw bruises and cigarette burns on his back. They both said he fell from the monkey bars, but I had a feeling it was her. She smelled of cigarettes and she is a single mother." Sam looked at me surprised and continued to do compressions, a crash cart finally arrived.

"Clear!" She shocked him, nothing. "Clear!" She shocked him again and finally his heart rate was normal. His eyes opened and he was in a lot of pain. "Frankie, it's ok. You are in the hospital, but everything is ok." They took him to intensive care to run tests on him. "Eric, I don't want you working with this patient. I need someone to keep close tabs on Lily."

"What? This is my patient!"

"Yes and you have an emotional attachment to him, you will do irrational things. I'm going to call social services and I'll keep you updated. But as of now you are no longer Frankie's doctor." I was so upset I couldn't handle being there a second longer, so I went outside for some fresh air. Harry and Rachel were outside taking a break as well, smoking cigarettes.

"Hey want to bum a smoke?" The curly haired red head asked. Rachel Green was Mark Green's daughter, Mark Green was a former chief of emergency medicine and died of brain cancer.

"No I don't smoke."

"Hey were you the one who gave the ultra sound for Lily?" Of course she was curious, she was her best friend. So I just nodded my head. "Why'd you do that, she just came in hung over and high."

"I found a trace of another DNA strand, so Sam thought it would be best to give her an ultra sound."

"So is she pregnant?"

"I would ask her yourself." She laughed.

"I would but we haven't been on the best terms lately. We are really good friends but ever since she got back together with Scott our relationship changed. I got upset with her, she doesn't talk to me about the deep stuff anymore. So is she pregnant?"

"Like I said you should ask her yourself." I couldn't be around them anymore so I went to the back where there was a homeless guy digging in the trash can. He asked me for some change but all I had was a power bar, so I gave him that instead. I went back into the hospital to see if there was anything I could do. I looked at the charts and everyone in admitting seemed to be already taken care of.

"So did you hear Lily might be pregnant?" Emily asked Dr. Morris, it seemed like everyone seemed to be talking about Lily. Even the nurses kept spreading rumors.

"I heard it was that rock star Scott that got her pregnant. You know every time he comes back to Chicago she always sleeps with him." Chuny told Helen.

"Yeah she also came in today really drunk and had coke in her system."

"I keep telling her he is bad news, but no she doesn't listen to me." I couldn't stand the whispering and rumors, so since there was nothing to do I went into an exam room to clear my head. Fifteen minutes later Sam came knocking on my door.

"Hey what are you doing? I thought I told you to take care of Lily!"

"Does she need to be taken care of?" I realized I was getting snippy. "Sorry, it's been a long day."

"I know but they are only going to get longer. I need you to check her vitals, she is complaining that she isn't working right now." We headed over to the observation room where Lily was now.

"Hey how is Frankie?"

"He's stable, social services talked to him and his mother. He finally told them that his mother has been beating him for years. He will be here for a while, they are trying to look for more family." We were at the room. "I'll keep you posted as long as you keep me posted on her." I nodded, Lily was talking on the phone with someone.

"Ok, I'll talk to you later. Thanks Abby, miss you too." She hung up and I checked her vitals, all seemed well. "So have the rumors started?" I ignored her. "What are they saying now? There she goes again, that Scott is such a bad influence on her. She can't seem to keep her pants on whenever he's around?" She looked really tired."

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"Any drowsiness, nausea, or headaches?" She shook her head.

"Something's different with you…" She could tell that I was hiding all the rumors that were being spread about her. "When I first met you, you couldn't take your eyes off of me. Now you can barely look at me. They are talking about me aren't they?"

"There just worried about you."

"Ha, worried about me? What are they saying?"

"Everything that you just said." She closed her eyes for a brief second, annoyed at everyone.

"Have you ever been in love Dr. Whitman?" I nodded my head. "Have you ever been so in love to where nothing else matters in the world. To where even though you know they may be a bad influence on you, but you didn't care what anyone else had to say." I didn't reply, because I had never felt that before. "That is what I have with Scott, sure when I'm with him I do crazy things like drink and do drugs. But there is just something about him that always pulls me to him." She paused. "Maybe it's his accent, but who knows. Everyone keeps telling me he is bad news, but the truth is he is actually a gentlemen. Everyone warns me that he is just going to cheat on me and lie about it, he has plenty of opportunities to do just that." She laughed. "But he has never cheated on me, the funny thing is, is that I cheated on him." I widened my eyes. "When he was away on tour, I was scared and alone and drunk. Yet he still forgave me."

"That's good, I guess."

"It's good, but I just don't know how he would react to me being pregnant. His music is doing so well right now and he is getting a lot of opportunities… I just don't know if he is ready to be a dad, I'm sure as hell not ready to be a mom."

"I'm sure if he loves you as much as you say he does, he'll do the right thing." Tony came barging in the room.

"Hey Dr. Whitman, we need you! A car crash." I rolled my eyes, there seems to be a lot of those lately.

"Seems to be a lot of car crashes today. Wish I could be out there." I was just about to leave. "Hey, Dr. Whitman. You seem like a really smart doctor…" I had no idea where she was going with this. "Don't let anyone tell you what to do. To be a good doctor you have to go with your gut instinct." I looked at her, right then something happened. I fell for her, she wasn't as bad as everyone seemed to believe she was. She just had a lot of problems going on in her life.

"Vitals?" Tony asked.

"Scott Vincent, 25 years old, BP 90/60, pupils dilated, lost a lot of blood." Tony looked at the EMT and it seemed like they knew who he was. The only Scott I knew was Lily's boyfriend, but it couldn't be him, could it?"

Chapter 4: Sam Taggart "Scott"

I only got about thirty minutes of sleep when I got the call about Scott, I rushed over to the trauma room right away. Yup it was him, it was damn Scott Vincent from the band Black Roses. The damn Scott Vincent who my best friend and coworker was crazy in love with. It was the same Scott who always brought Lily to the dark side and the same one who got her pregnant. He was in a car crash, it wasn't his fault though, he was perfectly sober, it was the other driver who ran the red light and crashed right into Scott's white Mercedes Benz. It seemed like no one was doing anything to revive this guy, even though everybody knew who he was except for Eric.

"What the hell is everybody standing around for? It's Scott, aren't we doctors here. Shouldn't we be saving his life!" I was getting frustrated at all of them, at Tony, at Eric, at Helen, even Chuny. I know nobody liked the guy, hell I hated him, but we were doctors and we needed to save him. He couldn't die now, not when Lily just found out she was pregnant with his child. So I got on top of him and started giving him compressions, even though I knew it wasn't going to help. He lost a lot of blood and his blood pressure was extremely low, his brain wasn't functioning. But I didn't care, I was going to do everything I could to get his heart beating. It had been a couple of hours, nothing was letting up. I had done everything, I gave him transfusions, I have been compressing his heart for the last couple of hours, I even shocked his heart at least ten times. "Damn it, Scott! You can't die on me now, you can't die on Lily!" Everybody was staring at me like I was crazy. "You bastard, you can't die! You're going to be a dad, did you hear me you are going to be a dad." Everybody looked at me shocked, even though most of them probably knew. I was sweating, my arms were getting tired, but I wasn't about to give up.

"Sam… Sam, nothing is going to help him." I didn't want to listen to Tony. "Sam I'm going to call it."

"NO! He can't, he can't leave her!"

"I know, but you have done everything you can. Nothing is going to save him now." Tony looked up at the clock but I kept compressing his heart.

"Scott Vincent, age 25, time of death 12:02 am." He turned off the monitor, but I didn't let go. Tony grabbed my arms and took me off the limp, non breathing Australian rock star. Everybody looked at me, they looked sorry for him, how could they be sorry for him when they all hated him? But I guess it wasn't him they felt sorry for, it was Lily they felt sorry for. Scott was her first real love and now he was dead, no one knew how she would react to this. "Sam do you want to tell her, or should I?" What kind of question was that, I couldn't tell Lily that her boyfriend was dead. "I'll tell her." Everybody watched Tony as he walked over to the observation room, Lily seemed to be talking to someone on the phone, or leaving a message, possibly Scott. She looked so happy and all of us looked like zombies, scared about what was going to happen next.

"Hey Tony? So did Sam tell you yet, I was just trying to get a hold of Scott. He's probably on his way to the restaurant." She noticed he looked sad, like he was going to tell her something bad. The door closed shut and you could just see him saying something, telling her that Scott is no longer here. Then within seconds she started crying, we all watched.


	2. Chapter 6: John Carter Back at County

Chapter 5: John Carter "Back at County"

I entered the busy, bustling, wave of Cook County General Hospital. Nurses who I knew that still worked here five years after I left were tending to sick and injured patients. Emergency doctors reviewing their patients, keeping tabs on them. EMTs rushing in the front doors with a badly injured patient, asking for help from a doctor. Normally I would be the first one up there to help them, but that was not my job anymore. I haven't been a doctor for County in five years and it has been five years since I last stepped foot in these halls. I have been living in Africa as a volunteer medic, finally opening my own practice in Darfur. It is a dangerous place but I love helping the people there, they deserve the help they are receiving.

The reason why I am back is not to catch up with old friends or to get back into emergency medicine. The reason why I am there is because of my cousin Lily Carter. My entire life I have been taking care of my cousin, she would always stop by my parents house drunk or high. I would always take her to the bathroom and hold her hair behind her head as she threw up. I would answer her call whenever Scott came back, because she always had issues. I always supported her because she didn't get any support from her parents. They were the main reason why she acted this way, they were extremely abusive parents without a care in the world for her. Lily was more like my sister than my cousin and my parents tried adopting her but they needed permission from her parents, which obviously wasn't going to happen.

I looked around to see if Sam Taggart was anywhere nearby, but it was so busy that it was hard to get anyone's attention. I saw Jerry listening to punk rock at the front desk handing a history questionnaire to the drop in. Next to him were three bright-eyed third year students talking about something other than medicine. I noticed one of them so I walked over to him, it was Harry the EMT turned medical student. Once upon a time my cousin had a crush on him, I walked up not saying a word hoping he would notice.

"Holy shit! Dr. Carter! What the hell are you doing here?" One of the medical students looked stunned at me as Harry said my name.

"I'm here to see my cousin, do you know where she is?" He had no idea.

"No sorry, I haven't talked to her in a while. But Eric might know where she is." He pointed to the medical student who looked in awe. "Hello, buddy you there?"

"Right sorry, Dr. Carter it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I know exactly where Lily is."

"First name basis with a first year resident?"

"I've been overseeing her. We've actually become quiet close with each other, she is showing me the ropes around here." Just as he said that Sam came running into me. She looked surprised to see me, we haven't seen or spoken to each other in five years.

"John! Oh my god, wow it's been ages!"

"I know. Eric here was about to show me where my cousin is."

"Oh well I can show you. Eric there is a woman in exam room one who needs a new IV, do you think you can take care of that while I show Dr. Carter where his cousin is?" He hesitantly nodded. I could tell he was a little bit disappointed, I think he really wanted to see my cousin. She has that effect on people. "So Carter how are you?"

"I'm good, but what I really want to know is how my cousin is."

"She's doing better than most, the worst day was definitely when Tony told her that Scott had died. But each day she is gradually getting better, you should see her room though it's like a greenhouse. Everyday doctors and nurses here send her flowers or drop in to talk. Even though I keep telling her she hates when people bring her flowers when someone close to her dies."

"Yeah she always hated that. She never really understood why people do that, she always said that flowers don't really help her in her time of grieve. They only remind her of the life that used to be." We were finally to the observation room, Sam was right there were a lot of flowers. Many of them Lilies because for some odd reason everybody thought those were her favorite flowers. But if you knew Lily you would know that her favorite flower was a white daisy and there were a few of those soaking in the sunlight. You couldn't even see Lily right away because of all the various types of flowers that over grew. But as we turned around the bed I saw my beautiful cousin looking sicker than I have ever seen her before. She was talking to Archie Morris, apparently they had been getting along lately.

"Holy shit, John Carter! What the hell are you doing here?" Lily looked a little bit embarrassed when she saw me. It has been a while since I last talked to her as well, but being in Africa there isn't really a great form of communication. The only way I could contact people is via letter mail, but sometimes I get so busy I don't have time to sit down and write a letter.

"Well you are talking to her." She was the only reason why I was here. I looked at her and I haven't seen her this sick in a while. She was pale white with dark circles under her eyes and even though she had a stomach from the baby growing inside her, she was extremely skinny. Her mouth was dry and cracked, her eyes crusty. She wasn't sick from an illness, she was depressed from losing the love of her life. When she got depressed she wouldn't eat or drink anything, and her insomnia would kick in because she would be thinking too much about what was making her depressed.

"Well Archie I think we should leave these two alone."

"Yes of course. But we should definitely catch up sometime!" I hugged Archie and Sam, it was good to see such close friends. I thought they would be mad at me for never replying to their emails.

"So how are you doing Lily?" I asked as the door closed.

"What are you doing here?" A lot of people have been asking that lately, but I wouldn't expect it from her.

"I think it's pretty obvious why I am here Lily." I looked down at her round belly, where a child was growing inside of her.

"I never told you that I was pregnant. Who told you?"

"Luka."

"I never told Luka."

"But you did tell Abby and Abby tells Luka everything." She knew I was right as much as I hated it. I wasn't upset that she was pregnant, I always knew that one of these days it was going to happen. She was in love with Scott and did irresponsible things when he was around. The truth was I couldn't be upset at her, only because Scott was dead and she needed someone to talk to. Someone who knew her best, and I was that person. She talked to me about how being pregnant should usually be the most happiest time in a woman's life, but for her it was the complete opposite. She told me that she missed Scott so much and couldn't believe he was dead, when it was just the night before his death when they slept together. All I could do was be there for her and make sure that she wouldn't go off the deep end.


End file.
